3 ms·

Open-source land registry

35 points by zuhayeer 6y ago

nonameiguess 6y ago
Nice. I actually think is the first application of blockchain I've seen posted here that makes some sense. Cut out title companies and no need for storing paper deeds in a courthouse somewhere. Still, a lot of the listed benefits don't clearly follow. Communication on the blockchain isn't any faster than communication via email and phone, so I'm not sure what that's getting at. The slow speed of approving people for mortgages isn't going to change because the bottleneck there is usually the applicant finding and gathering all the records they need, which won't be on the same blockchain. Similarly, the issues caused by unstructured data don't go away when you swap out the storage backend. Putting a schema and API on top of this to make the data automatically accessible to downstream consumers without needing a human to parse it needs to happen at a layer above the blockchain itself.
- spiralx 6y ago
  > I actually think is the first application of blockchain I've seen posted here that makes some sense. Cut out title companies and no need for storing paper deeds in a courthouse somewhere. Why is it every application touted for blockchains seem to address issues that either solely or largely apply only in the US? The UK already has free, instant bank transfers and a central online land registry with an API that reflects the actual legal status of land in the UK. Any blockchain solution will always be some combination of incomplete and out of date, while having no legal basis means that it cannot be an authoritative source, and there's no need for a blockchain in the first place. How is this any different from a bunch of NFTs that represent "ownership" of a piece of land?
  - thrill 6y ago
    "Why is it every application touted for blockchains seem to address issues that either solely or largely apply only in the US?" As per the reference link this is backed by the United Nations and is attempting to aid Afghanistan.
  - reedf1 6y ago
    > central online land registry If you have used this nightmare, or have tried to solve a property dispute about party-walls/land-boundaries, you know how insufficient the system is.
    - the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
      > If you have used this nightmare, or have tried to solve a property dispute about party-walls/land-boundaries, you know how insufficient the system is. Elaborate: how is a central registry a problem for property disputes? Disputes are unrelated to how you store the information. If there is a dispute you always need some form of external arbitration to resolve it. A central registry of ownership or other titles does not change anything about that. I live in a country with a land registry and it's a very well working system.
    - IshKebab 6y ago
      Surely not a flaw with the concept of a central registry. Maybe with the particular implementation.
  - closeparen 6y ago
    The reason for title insurance in the US is that registries do not reflect the final legal status of land, merely the best available information about it. Someone could show up with a legally valid claim that was not on file.
    - the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
      Which I would argue is a problem in itself. The current process of ownership transfer of land in the US is problematic because of the lack of ultimate authority.
    - gmueckl 6y ago
      Just to contrast this to other parts of the world: in Germany, the land registry is the only authoritative source for ownership information. So the excerpts from the registry about a certain property are always the complete information by definition. The downside of this is that if a clerk makes an erroneous entry, that error then becomes legally binding. While rare, this does unfortunately happen occasionally and can have pretty wild repercussions.
    - pjc50 6y ago
      Yeah, that's the legal system having it the wrong way up. And of course the blockchain doesn't solve that either without legislation making it the source of truth (!)
  - mavhc 6y ago
    Usually because you don't trust the government to not rewrite the registry
- the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
  > no need for storing paper deeds in a courthouse somewhere. There are plenty of countries with central land registries and no need for paper deeds or titles. Why does this require blockchain shenanigans?

35 points by zuhayeer 6y ago

Nice. I actually think is the first application of blockchain I've seen posted here that makes some sense. Cut out title companies and no need for storing paper deeds in a courthouse somewhere. Still, a lot of the listed benefits don't clearly follow. Communication on the blockchain isn't any faster than communication via email and phone, so I'm not sure what that's getting at. The slow speed of approving people for mortgages isn't going to change because the bottleneck there is usually the applicant finding and gathering all the records they need, which won't be on the same blockchain. Similarly, the issues caused by unstructured data don't go away when you swap out the storage backend. Putting a schema and API on top of this to make the data automatically accessible to downstream consumers without needing a human to parse it needs to happen at a layer above the blockchain itself.

spiralx 6y ago
> I actually think is the first application of blockchain I've seen posted here that makes some sense. Cut out title companies and no need for storing paper deeds in a courthouse somewhere. Why is it every application touted for blockchains seem to address issues that either solely or largely apply only in the US? The UK already has free, instant bank transfers and a central online land registry with an API that reflects the actual legal status of land in the UK. Any blockchain solution will always be some combination of incomplete and out of date, while having no legal basis means that it cannot be an authoritative source, and there's no need for a blockchain in the first place. How is this any different from a bunch of NFTs that represent "ownership" of a piece of land?
- thrill 6y ago
  "Why is it every application touted for blockchains seem to address issues that either solely or largely apply only in the US?" As per the reference link this is backed by the United Nations and is attempting to aid Afghanistan.
- reedf1 6y ago
  > central online land registry If you have used this nightmare, or have tried to solve a property dispute about party-walls/land-boundaries, you know how insufficient the system is.
  - the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
    > If you have used this nightmare, or have tried to solve a property dispute about party-walls/land-boundaries, you know how insufficient the system is. Elaborate: how is a central registry a problem for property disputes? Disputes are unrelated to how you store the information. If there is a dispute you always need some form of external arbitration to resolve it. A central registry of ownership or other titles does not change anything about that. I live in a country with a land registry and it's a very well working system.
  - IshKebab 6y ago
    Surely not a flaw with the concept of a central registry. Maybe with the particular implementation.
- closeparen 6y ago
  The reason for title insurance in the US is that registries do not reflect the final legal status of land, merely the best available information about it. Someone could show up with a legally valid claim that was not on file.
  - the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
    Which I would argue is a problem in itself. The current process of ownership transfer of land in the US is problematic because of the lack of ultimate authority.
  - gmueckl 6y ago
    Just to contrast this to other parts of the world: in Germany, the land registry is the only authoritative source for ownership information. So the excerpts from the registry about a certain property are always the complete information by definition. The downside of this is that if a clerk makes an erroneous entry, that error then becomes legally binding. While rare, this does unfortunately happen occasionally and can have pretty wild repercussions.
  - pjc50 6y ago
    Yeah, that's the legal system having it the wrong way up. And of course the blockchain doesn't solve that either without legislation making it the source of truth (!)
- mavhc 6y ago
  Usually because you don't trust the government to not rewrite the registry
the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
> no need for storing paper deeds in a courthouse somewhere. There are plenty of countries with central land registries and no need for paper deeds or titles. Why does this require blockchain shenanigans?